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Monday, November 23, 2015

Letting the Story Take the Lead

In October, I made my plans for November. I was going to
write book one of this series, and so when I was outlining, I did a vague
outline for all three books, a fill in the blank outline for the first two, and
a detailed outline for book one.

Then November actually came and I finished book one in
fourteen days. I didn’t want to stop the momentum, so I moved onto book two
with only a slightly less-than-vague outline to go by. This means that as I’m
writing, I have to figure out ways to jump from this plot point to the next. As
can be expected, the results have been all over the place.

In the past week, I’ve learned more about the belief system
of the world, especially concerning death. Apparently, their limbo is called
the Yuchbish, and there’s
a dragon in there. It kind of blindsided me, but I decided to see where it
went. I still have yet to decide if it’s going to stay, but there’s some good
scenes in there.

I think the biggest issue that I have is that I’m never quite sure
where to proceed next. Obviously it’s not hindering my word count. I’m
currently 50,000 words into book two, and hoping to finish it by the end of the
month. But I felt like there was an issue with the end of the book. Obviously,
it’s the middle book, so the biggest thing to watch for is that the whole book
doesn’t become that sagging middle. Yesterday, while driving to work, I had an
epiphany. I wasn’t treating it like its own book. I wasn’t focused on having
the action move forward, or to having a climax at the end.

Obviously, if it’s a story worth telling, even if it’s in the middle of
the series, it needs to have a clear purpose, as well as a clear climax.
Something to give the readers some kind of resolution before moving into the
next issue and forward in the overarching plot.

Now that I’ve figured out the climax of the book, as well as the
conflict, I’m confident that the story and I are now on the same page. Here’s
to seven more days! Hope everyone else is doing well!